My statutes shall ye observe. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with another sort; thou shalt not sow thy field with seed of two sorts; and a garment woven of two materials shall not come upon thee.
Leviticus 19 shows what holiness looks like in daily life. In the middle of it sit three small rules about mixing — breeding, sowing, and weaving — under a solemn call to keep God's statutes.
Where the verse sits in the chapter
One writer traces how far into daily life the chapter reaches.
Chapter 19 sets out in some detail what they should show. It applies holiness to the everyday life of the Israelite: his home, his worship, his dealings with his neighbours, his farming of the ground, and his behaviour towards the stranger.
Small rules, solemn opening
One writer notes the gap between the verse's solemn opening and the small rules that follow.
It is remarkable that God here calls them to keep His statutes, when the three bans He lays on Israel look so minor. They are not moral commands, unlike the one that follows.
The Creator's order
The reason given for the ban on mixtures reaches back behind the law to creation itself, and it cuts both ways.
God pressed His order on them firmly and wisely, and forbade the mixing of different kinds. He is a faithful Creator, and He gave each creature its species. So, just as it was sin to separate what He joined, it was no less sin to join what He separated.
Israel's own history seems to bear this out. Mules turn up only later, and by import rather than breeding:
The horse does not seem to have entered Palestine until the days of David, when we first hear of "mules" too. These were probably imported, since the law forbade any such mixture.
What each picture stands for
Commenting on the parallel laws in Deuteronomy 22, another writer gives each of the three bans its own meaning.
2 Corinthians 6:14 gives the plain meaning of the "unequal yoke." Christ's yoke cannot be borne by the unclean — the unbeliever — and for the believer there is no other. The garment of wool and linen speaks in the same way of mixed habits, while the sowing of seed represents the need to keep the truth unmixed. Failure at any of these points is a real robbery — of God, and of one's neighbour. We owe both to Christians and to the people of the world that we keep our Christian simplicity and singleness of life and testimony.
Where the rule applies today
One writer refuses to limit this principle to one area of life.
The passage applies to marriage, and to partnerships. It applies to everything where people have to walk together on some common principle. The Christian is to bring in Christ as his one and only motive for everything. An unbeliever cannot do this, for he does not have the motive, and it is impossible for them to act together. The Old Testament applies in this way: it brings to light the general principles of what God delights in and what pleases Him.
When compromise is wrong
One writer applies this to the Christian, and separates two kinds of compromise.
To the Christian these words are full of importance. It was Satan who sowed weeds among the wheat, and the Spirit warns against every unfitting fellowship (2 Corinthians 6). There must be no mismatched yoking with unbelievers, no touching what is unclean, no compromise of truth by mixed principles. In the matters of this life compromise is kind and right; but where God's will is in question, it is a trick of the devil.
Mixed, not merely soiled
Applied to character, the woven garment describes a whole life built on two incompatible principles — which is not the same as a life that stumbles.
There is a soiled garment which is, at the same time, not a mixed garment — not a garment of two sorts, of wool and linen. Our way under the Spirit is to keep our garments undefiled, and anything other or less than that is not the way of fellowship with the Lord. But a garment with a thread of another sort here and there is not to be mistaken for one whose whole fabric is woven on the very principle of "wool and linen."
Summary
- Kinds. God made each creature after its own kind, so joining what He separated is as much sin as separating what He joined.
- Field. The sown field stands for the truth, and the truth must be kept unmixed.
- Garment. The cloth pictures habits. A mixed life is woven throughout from two opposing principles; a soiled life is not the same thing.
- Yoke. The same principle reaches marriage and business partnerships. An unbeliever cannot make Christ his one motive, so the two cannot walk together.
- Statutes. The three bans look small, yet they stand under the call to keep God's statutes. Holiness is tested in the farmyard, the field, and the wardrobe — and where God's will is at stake, compromise is a trick of the devil.